The case turned on family ties, a doorway shooting, child witnesses nearby and surveillance footage after the gunfire.
RIDGELAND, S.C. — Charles Saunders was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison after a Jasper County jury found him guilty of murdering a Hardeeville couple during a June 2024 shooting that prosecutors said happened in front of young children.
The case mattered not only because two people were killed, but because prosecutors said the violence happened inside a close family orbit shaped by years of shared history. Saunders, 50, had come from New York to South Carolina and was staying with people who knew him. Prosecutors said the victims, Alesia Dykes and Bernard Alexander Lyles, had opened their home to Saunders’ relatives. The state argued that a simmering dispute ended in deliberate gunfire. The defense told jurors Saunders feared for his life. The jury sided with the prosecution.
At the center of the story was the complicated way the people involved were connected. Prosecutors said Saunders and Dykes had known each other years earlier in New York. Dykes later introduced Saunders to her sister, and Saunders had a son with her. By the time of the shooting, that son had a child, drawing Saunders to South Carolina. Prosecutors said he had been staying with Dykes for about three weeks. Dykes and Lyles were also caring for Saunders’ adult son and grandson. Those details gave the case a domestic and personal dimension that made the killings feel less like a random crime than the collapse of a family network under pressure.
According to the state, the warning signs appeared before any shot was fired. Prosecutors said Saunders and Lyles had been arguing in the days leading up to June 18, 2024. They also told jurors Saunders posted a social media video that showed him with firearms while threatening to shoot someone. The state used that evidence to argue intent and preparation. On the day of the killings, police were called to the Walsh Drive Apartments shortly after noon. Witnesses said an argument outside the apartment escalated into a physical fight. Dykes and Lyles then tried to separate themselves by going back inside, but prosecutors said Saunders followed to the threshold and fired into the residence.
The scene inside the apartment became one of the most disturbing parts of the trial. Three children were in the home when the shots rang out. Dykes died at the scene. Lyles was taken to Coastal Carolina Hospital and later died from his injuries. One child ran from the apartment to a nearby relative for help. In testimony that stayed with the courtroom, Shawonna Dykes recounted what a child said after the shooting: that Saunders had shot “momma and Boo Boo too.” The phrase compressed the event into a child’s view of catastrophe, and prosecutors used it to remind jurors that the killings were witnessed in real time by people far too young to understand why they were happening.
After the shooting, prosecutors said Saunders did not wait for officers or try to explain his actions. Instead, the state said, he fled. Surveillance cameras traced his movements as he left the area, removed his shirt and threw it away. Investigators recovered the shirt and said forensic testing found gunshot residue on it. Video later showed Saunders getting into a car. He was eventually arrested at a Waffle House in Ridgeland. Prosecutors presented those steps as evidence of consciousness of guilt. They argued that someone acting in lawful self-defense would be more likely to remain, report the incident and identify the threat, rather than discard clothing and move away from the scene.
Defense lawyers challenged both the certainty and the completeness of the state’s story. They argued that Saunders acted in self-defense and pressed investigators about what they could and could not know about the struggle. The defense highlighted that no gun was directly connected to Saunders in the simple, physical way many jurors might expect. Prosecutors countered with firearms evidence showing that only one weapon had been fired and that two other guns recovered at the scene were not discharged. They argued that those findings weakened the defense theory and fit the prosecution’s claim that Saunders brought a confrontation to a deadly end after the others tried to retreat inside.
The jury deliberated for a little more than an hour before returning guilty verdicts on two murder charges and two weapon charges. The speed of the decision suggested jurors found the core facts clear and the state’s timeline persuasive. During sentencing, family members spoke about the victims beyond the crime scene. Bernard Lyles’ mother described her son’s efforts to rebuild his life. Alesia Dykes’ father spoke about his daughter’s role in helping raise Saunders’ son and asked the court for a life sentence. Their statements shifted attention from legal proof to the people whose absence now defines the case.
Judge Carmen T. Mullen sentenced Saunders to two consecutive life terms plus five additional years. Saunders continued to say he acted in self-defense, but the ruling left little ambiguity about how the court viewed the killings. The case now stands as a stark record of how a dispute among people tied by years of familiarity ended in two deaths, traumatized children and a punishment that ensures Saunders will remain in prison for the rest of his life unless a higher court changes the outcome.
Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.